viernes, 11 de mayo de 2018

Americans are generally positive about free trade agreements, more critical of tariff increases

By Bradley Jones A
worker at the Friedrich Wilhelms-Hutte steelworks in Mulheim, Germany.
Recent proposals to increase U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports
have raised concern among business interests and foreign leaders.
(Markus Matzel/Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)

Americans’ views
of free trade agreements, which turned more negative during the 2016
presidential campaign, are now about as positive as they were prior to
the campaign. And when asked about proposed tariffs on steel and
aluminum, more say they would be bad for the country than say they would
be good.

A majority of U.S. adults (56%) say free trade
agreements have been a “good thing” for the country as a whole, while
30% say they have been a “bad thing.” That is the highest share
expressing positive views of free trade agreements in three years,
according to a new survey by Pew Research Center.

Most
of the change has come among Republicans and Republican-leaning
independents, who now are evenly divided in their views of free trade
agreements’ impact on the country. While 46% say these agreements have
been a bad thing for the country, nearly as many (43%) say they have
been a good thing. In the final weeks of the presidential campaign in
October 2016, 63% of Republicans viewed free trade agreements
negatively, while just 29% said they were a good thing.

By
contrast, Democratic views of free trade agreements remain
overwhelmingly positive: Two-thirds (67%) say free trade agreements have
been good for the U.S, while just 19% say they have been bad. In
October 2016, a smaller majority of Democrats (59%) viewed trade
agreements positively.

The partisan divide is even more pronounced in views about raising tariffs.

Republicans
generally have a positive view of potential increases in tariffs on
steel and aluminum imports. About six-in-ten (58%) say they would be
good for the country, while just 26% say such tariff increases would be
bad for the country. Democratic opinion is the opposite: Only 22% of
Democrats think increasing steel and aluminum tariffs would be good for
the U.S., while 63% say they would be bad for the country.

While
the Trump administration’s proposals to increase tariffs on steel and
aluminum imports from other countries have drawn significant attention
among business interests and foreign leaders, a substantial share of the
U.S. public has heard little or nothing about these proposals.

Just
29% of the public says it has heard “a lot” about proposals to raise
tariffs on steel and aluminum, and 41% say they have heard “a little.”
Roughly three-in-ten (29%) say they have heard “nothing at all” about
these proposals.

The partisan gap in views of tariffs is
substantially wider among those who have heard “a lot” about the
proposals than those who have not: Two-thirds (67%) of Republicans who
have heard a lot about the proposed tariffs say they will be a good
thing for the country, compared with just 8% of Democrats who have heard
a lot about them.